Zico and Socrates came to Europe in their 30s.... well past their prime in those days. The Brazilian league was considered the best in the world (remember how Zico's team destroyed the "team of the century" Liverpool).

So their European club play meant very little to me.

I travelled with my father for business for 4 weeks to South America and he was a football nut. Got a chance to see Corinthians and Flamengo live. Let me tell you... Socrates was out of this world. So was Zico.

And Platini was considered, without the shadow of a doubt, the best player in Serie A and Europe from 1983 through 1986. He played WC 1986 injured at the age of 31. His prime years were actually at St Etienne... people forget he went to Juve at the age of 27.

And Van Basten was nothing short of insane at Ajax.

People need to understand the context of football pre-Bosman ruling. Very few players left their home countries. So you had to be born in the right country to play for the elite clubs. And English football dominated Europe from the mid 70s through the mid 80s... Serie A became the best league in the late 80s on. The World Cup was really the only competition where all the best players were present and competed against each other.

And to trump all that, the best club football league was in South America without the shadow of a doubt for me.

Ronaldo nazario 1994 - 98 is the single greatest sporting phenomenon known to mankind imo.

And just to add my 2 cents. Maradona will always be greater than platini whichever way you look at it. Whether by talent, reputation, trophies, achievements, popularity, star factor. It's that simple really.

And lol at sneaking zidane into this argument the guy basically never even had a peak period of dominance lol. He is only basically mentioned by the media based on his talent and his likeable reputation. This is a thread about absolute peaks and not a thread about which French man I like the most.

i think that debate about r9 vs van basten, should really be henry vs van basten. i like van basten (never liked milan), but cos of gullit i saw a lot of marco. thing is we had seen strikers like him, when r9 stepped on the scene , we hadn't seen that, at least not from a cf, and if pele did those things, it was before my time. r9 was like a maradona in the striker role.

and really henry mehn, the only reason i find it easy to put marco above him is because of my dislike for arsenal. but if i'm being truthful its a toss up. henry from 01 till when he left arsenal was a beast. and in his absolute prime he was the best cf in the world over ronaldo eto'o sheva ruud and all those guys....many a time, his team's ucl exit was due to guys like pascal cygan and naive arsene

@sportsczy wrote:Absolutely not true... Until the mid to late 80s, South America had the best football leagues in the world by a country mile. Copa Libertadores was the best club competition in the world.

that south american league stuff is bull jive. people where not leaving to join the brazilian nor argentine league in droves, not to even mention uruguay, colombia, paaraguay. i'm not going to act like i was versed in brazilian football but i don't think socrates was ever the de facto boss in brazil. and all those guys where much older than maradona, its not like they where the same age, the guy was really the definition of a prodigy

Player i have watched week and week out in their prime is Messi, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo Lima. All of them was unreal and was such a joy to watch. Even though Ronaldinho's peak was very brief but man what a player he was!! His tricks was better than any of today's player.